With the advent of AI and rapidly changing corporate needs and performance, many companies have announced layoffs this year, and I expect we are far from done. These layoffs range in size from small, like eBay’s announcement of 1,000 layoffs, to the much larger 12,000-plus layoffs expected from Dell and Intel, among others.
Regardless of the size of the layoff, employees face difficult and unexpected choices. Making the wrong decision could not only end your career but also lead to legal trouble if you act impulsively without considering the risks.
Let’s discuss layoffs this week, and I’ll close with my Product of the Week: a new head-mounted display from Goovis that could be useful for those of us who watch TV in bed and aren’t quite ready to quit when our spouses want to call it a night.
The Art of Conducting Layoffs
There is an art to layoffs of which most companies seem unaware.
The first big layoff I experienced was at IBM under Louis Gerstner. What made it better than most was that the employees who were to be laid off were called to a meeting. While at the meeting, their personal effects were gathered and sent to a remote office facility where they had three months to find another job either inside IBM or outside. During that time, they continued to receive full salaries and benefits. Their only job for that period of time was to find new employment, and most did.
That approach helped eliminate some typical problems with layoffs, including employees acting out, the low morale associated with blending people whose jobs were safe with those being asked to leave, and helping assure the employees who were laid off didn’t subsequently act out against IBM.
This last is important when you consider that, a few years later, another computer company didn’t do this. One of the terminated employees ended up as a buyer for that firm’s largest retail channel and terminated the contract, effectively forcing the firm to be sold to a competitor due to lost revenue.
Under CEO Carley Fiorina, HP handled a layoff very poorly. It didn’t take care of the laid-off employees well. During the layoff, it bought new corporate jets and publicly increased Fiorina’s compensation, which really upset not only those who were laid off but also the remaining employees.
Fiorina later ran for office in California and lost by the number of people she’d laid off and their immediate families, suggesting she paid dearly for mistreating her people.
How a company executes a layoff tells you much about what executive management thinks of its employees. Companies with CEOs who handle layoffs poorly should be avoided, as these leaders tend to prioritize their own compensation over the well-being of employees, stockholders, and customers. Poorly executed layoffs put all three at risk.
Employee Choices When Laid-Off
Laid-off employees must make choices, some of which are problematic. An unfortunate number of employees will choose to act out with behavior ranging from badmouthing their firm, stealing company property, or, in one case, where a CIO was laid off, erasing the firm’s databases (he went to jail).
Some terminated employees resort to violence, which is never acceptable. The worst case of this was the 1974 Borax layoff and strike where the local town and company went to war. Helicopters were shot down, managers were buried up to their necks in ant hills, and ex-military personnel were hired to fight off the angry, terminated employees.
I was briefed by one of the ex-Ranger security teams, and it sounded like a war zone, showcasing that things can go very badly when you piss off a lot of folks. Fortunately, this is rare, but when it does happen, it can be catastrophic. That scenario was part of my training, and the stories were truly frightening.
What employees need to remember is that you can make things worse. Acting out, especially with violence, can lead to legal jeopardy and render you unemployable. That behavior won’t hurt the employer so much as it will hurt you and those close to you.
It is easier to find a new job before you are laid off than after because you avoid the questions about why you were terminated, which, depending on your answer and whether the interviewer believes you, could get you cut from consideration for that new job.
Too often, those left behind in a layoff think those who were cut were the lucky ones because most firms don’t compensate the remaining employees for the extra work they have to perform. Layoffs also tend to come in waves when done poorly because of unintended consequences, and collateral damage can negatively impact sales, customer loyalty, and the company’s ability to execute.
So, you need to consider if you are up to this drama and excessive workload.
On the other hand, if the company does dig out, there will be opportunities that wouldn’t have otherwise existed. If you have put in the work and management is aware, you should be on the shortlist to benefit from those opportunities.
If you aren’t good at tooting your own horn by making people aware of the effort as a result of you making that big push, then you won’t benefit and should consider leaving instead. However, slacking will result in your being on the shortlist for the next layoff, so that is an ill-advised path to take.
The only time to seek a different job within the same company after a layoff is if your department is being eliminated and you still enjoy working there. If laid off for performance reasons, that stigma will follow you, making it harder to secure the next job and potentially putting you at risk for future layoffs. So, moving to another company might be strategically in your best interest.
Finally, I recommend avoiding companies that have had multiple layoffs over a five-year period. Such a record indicates endemic problems that may be unfixable. No one wants to go through a layoff once, let alone multiple times.
Wrapping Up
Layoffs are unfortunate, and well-run companies don’t do them as there are better ways to reduce costs that aren’t as risky. It is sad that the art of downsizing an employee base has degraded as much as it has, and the advent of AI is expected to result in much more significant workforce reductions in the future.
I recommend upskilling when possible and perhaps developing a second area of expertise in case an AI solution embraces your career path.
My best advice is that if you are angry or have poor impulse control, take a few days off to think about your options and craft a safe path forward as you learn from the experience.
After being laid off, I know people who have gotten rid of all of their expensive things, gotten a relatively low-paying, low-stress, and more fun job, and found the change to result in a far better life. Being laid off gives you the option of changing your life for the better, something more of us should regularly do since a lot of people don’t enjoy their current career path.
Finally, like everything else, this too shall pass if you don’t do anything stupid and instead use it as an opportunity to find a better job and a better life. Oh, and one thing you definitely don’t want to do is take your anger home to your friends, kids, or spouse. That never ends well.
Best of luck, and for those being laid off, my heart goes out to you. I hope you end up in a better place.
The Goovis Art
I’ve been buying Goovis headsets for years and have one of everything they’ve made so far.
I also have Rokid headsets, with the difference typically being that the Rokid devices look more like glasses, and you can use them to work confidentially (no one but you can see the screen) and still see your hands on the keyboard.
Goovis products isolate you more, making them better for watching videos or playing video games that use controllers, where you don’t need to reposition your fingers on the keyboard or use keyboard binds.
The Goovis Art is a blend of the old Goovis headsets and the Rokid approach in that it has the same high-quality experience as other Goovis products, but it doesn’t seal against your face, so you can still see your hands and use it as a head-mounted display for work.
The display also flips up so you can more easily disengage if someone walks up or you need to see what that strange noise was that wasn’t part of the game or movie. It works best when watching many videos before I go to sleep and my wife wants to read or go to sleep. Without the headset, I’d have to face an angry, tired wife, which I’m not a fan of. I can use headphones but the light from the screen is annoying, so I rarely do that.
With this Goovis Art, I can isolate my wife from what I’m watching. She is happy, so I am happy, and I can even do email or social media, assuming I’m using a laptop with a non-mechanical keyboard (tablets don’t work well because finger placement on a virtual keyboard is problematic in the dark).
Currently, the Goovis Art is on Indiegogo at a 37% discount and immediate shipping (it takes around a week to get it out of China), putting it at $440 + shipping, taxes, and accessories. They offer a case and streaming box that I bought, but I only use them when my phone doesn’t support an external monitor for movies. The eventual list price will be $699, making it a decent deal to get early.
Goovis has always done impressive work, and since Goovis Art makes it so I can doom scroll YouTube without facing spousal revenge, it is my Product of the Week.
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